How to make a healthy low-carb lunch box that is sugar-free, gluten-free, grain-free, wheat-free, no junk food, and super yummy that kids will love - in 5 easy steps!
Watch the video below - it will blow your mind how easy and healthy a low-carb lunch box is.
BONUS: You can download 50 low-carb lunch box ideas and a handbook.
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How To Start Making Healthy Low-Carb Lunch Boxes
We all want better and healthier lunch boxes for our kids right? But did you know just how bad a regular lunch box is?
We need to stop feeding our kid's sooooo much sugar and ultra-processed carbs in their daily school lunch boxes and #banishthebeige
We need to feed them real whole food that is fresh, colourful, vibrant and lower in carbs, and packed with nutrition.
So how do you do that when you're probably a busy family?
Below you will find 5 easy steps to begin making healthy low-carb lunch boxes.
More Low-Carb Lunchbox Recipes ...
Start With Baby Steps
All children will benefit from reducing their sugar and stopping the ultra-processed carbs. These junk food lunch box fillers don't do anything for their energy levels, nothing for their nutrition and nothing for their concentration.
You can begin changing your kid's lunch boxes by making 5 baby steps below!
More Low-Carb Snack Recipes ...
Learn the tricks
JOIN ME - in my Low-Carb Lunch Box Hacks group, where I post pictures of what I pack each day for my family of 5. I can show you all the practical tips you need to get started.
And don't worry, I won't be asking you to get any cookie cutters out, to write any inspirational messages for your kid's lunch box each day or make crazy faces out of salad and fruit. No way. Life has to be quick, easy and nutritious in the morning. Otherwise, you simply won't do it. Click here to join.
Read more: 1-month of low-carb lunch box ideas & handbook
How To Make A Low-Carb Lunch Box - in 5 easy steps
- STOP Sugary Drinks - this immediately cuts out a massive source of sugar for most children. So no more sugary fizzy drinks, no more juice, no more flavoured milk and definitely no more energy drinks or sports drinks. All they do is give your children a sugar rush then a sugar low and you have to deal with the crash and temper tantrums afterwards.
- STOP high-carb snacks - potato crisps, pretzels, crackers, bread, are all high in easily digestible carbohydrates. These digestible carbohydrates turn into sugar in our body. So even if you buy bread or pretzels that are low in sugar, they are still going to cause a spike in sugar levels.
- STOP "healthy halo" snacks - these are snacks such as low-fat fruit yoghurt, wholegrain granola/muesli bars, organic real fruit candy, and fat-free smoothies. They are given the "health halo" by the advertising industry but if you actually look at the nutrition labels, they are still high in sugars and grains (and you guessed it, that raise blood sugars).
- START new snacks - begin by introducing a new snack in place of an old junk snack you have stopped buying. (see my easy recipes at the end of this post). Grain-free granola bars are a quick and easy option.
- START cooking ONCE but serving TWICE - seriously, who has time for preparing lunches each day so I rely heavily on leftovers. Cook a double quantity and store the leftovers in little single serve pots, keep them in the fridge or freezer and bam ... pull them out in the morning, heck, teach your kids to do it! (see my easy recipes at the end of this post)
Why no more juice? A glass of orange juice isn't the same as the goodness from 6 oranges, it's the same as the sugar from 6 oranges. Remember eating the whole fruit with its fibre is self-limiting.
Why no more dried fruit? Dried fruit, fruit leather, is just a dried sugar bomb! Yes, that's right, a handful of grapes is also self-limiting, but just 1 tiny box of raisins is the equivalent of the sugar in a can of coke!!!
Plus dried fruit is really sticky and chewy, dentists are finding more children with tooth decay caused by chewing on dried fruit because their parents think it is a healthy option.
Why no more sports drinks? No child benefits from slugging back sugar, colours, and chemicals after a game. These "sports drinks" (I use that term loosely) are laden with far too much sugar even for the top endurance athlete, let alone our kids on the soccer field on a Saturday morning.
Sports drinks can have more sugar than a can of coke plus the ludicrous colours they come in. Instead, save your money and give them just a bottle of tap water, a piece of fruit and a handful of salty nuts. This will serve your kid with far more nutritional kindness than an energy drink (even the name is an oxymoron).
Hungry To Learn More?
- Low-Carb Kids - all the resources you'll ever need
- Busting the low-carb kid's myth - and why ditching junk food is so much better for them
- How to help your kids eat real food - and a quick action plan
- How to help your kids become low-carb kids - even if they are picky eaters PLUS my podcast
More recipes you may like:
- Grain-free granola bars
- Chaffles 4 ways (and FREE cookbook) + VIDEO
- 2-step almond flour bread + VIDEO
- Low-carb mug cake 4 ways + VIDEO
References:
- Sugar in raisins. - Independent
- Sugar in sports drinks - That Sugar Film
- Carbohydrates and blood sugars - Harvard
Lynn
Parents - go slow if this is new! My kids sneak and hide and will trade for other kids lunches. So be careful of restriction, regardless of knowing the nutritional benefits! It will back fire! But - I love this website!!!
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
So true, this is one of the many reasons I love to go stepwise and slowly. In the long-run, it is more sustainable.
Bobbie
Hi Libby, I am new to Keto and trying to figure out how to eat. But I was wondering how long can you stay on the Keto Diet/LowCarbHighFat Diet? I've read in some places that it was only meant as a temporary way of eating to help bring weight down/control diabetes, etc. But can you stay on it indefinitely without causing any damage to your body, kidneys, and without ultimately raising your cholesterol? Thanks so much!
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
I am planning on remaining low-carb forever. There is no way I would ever want to go back to the traditional flawed food pyramid which is high-carb and results in chronic high blood sugars and chronic high insulin levels resulting in insulin resistance. It is how our ancestors ate, no ultra-processed carbs only real food for thousands of years. It is, in fact, the current food low-fat high-carb food pyramid which was never tested long term and has been one of the biggest failed experiments on public health. If you want to read more about the cholesterol myth, take a look at this article. Hope this helps Bobbie.
Tilly
Hi
Can you suggest any lunch ideas for my 13 year old daughter who has had chronic eczema all her life please? I've just started her on keto but she's allergic to most fruits except bananas which she's not too keen on unless it's in a smoothie (almond milk unsweetened, banana, almonds, psyllium husk, stevie, vsnilla). She's also allergic to cucumbers bell peppers which she adores, anything spicy, oranges apples nectarines, tomatoes...and the list goes on. All trial and error at the moment so not sure if she's allergic to dairy n nuts as she's still scratching. Her skin has improved a LITTLE so somethings obviously not right. Mind you, she's only been on keto for a week. Help please?!
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com
It would probably be easier to list the things she can tolerate then I could perhaps give you some recipe ideas. Why not come and join me in my Luch Box Group, you can see what I pack each day for my 3 kiddos and husband HERE. See you in there. 🙂
Susan
Hi Tilly,
My first thought on reading your comment was you should be looking at doing the AIP (autoimmune protocol), Low FODMAP or even Paleo rather than Keto/LCHF with your daughter. Her intolerances are significant and if it were me, I'd be doing AIP which eliminates everything that is known to cause reactions. Low FODMAP was developed by researchers at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and is along similar lines to AIP. The food focus is slightly different. Both will have you remove dairy, grains, sugar in all forms (most fruits included for fructose), lentils/pulses and quite a number of vegetables including ones you have mentioned. You follow it for a maximum of 4-6 weeks and then slowly introduce foods one at a time to test for reactions (same as how you introduced solids when she was a baby). The reason for only doing it for 4-6 weeks is for the health of gut microbiome. Once you know exactly what foods she is reacting to, Keto recipes will be useful however keto is designed for weight loss and blood sugar control, not necessarily auto-immune help. That's not to say the recipes aren't useful, they are but you need to have a clear understanding of her intolerances/allergies first and the only way is to do a proper and controlled elimination programme like AIP or Low FODMAP. On a +ve note, there are those that have lived with a restricted diet for many years (10-20) which has allowed their bodies time to heal resulting in them re-introducing formerly intolerable foods like dairy. I hope you and your daughter find some answers. All the best xx